Barbirolli: Delius – Orchestral Works (2 CD, FLAC)

Orchestra: Halle Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Sir John Barbirolli
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks+cue)
Label: EMI
Size: 584 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

Disc 1
01. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: Brigg Fair:I. Introduction (Slow. Pastoral)
02. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: Brigg Fair:I. Theme (With Easy Movement)
03. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: I. Variation 1
04. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: I. Var. 2
05. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: I. Var. 3
06. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: I. Var 4
07. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: I. Var. 5
08. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: I. Var. 6
09. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: II. Interlude (Slow And Very Quietly)
10. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Var. 7 (Rather quicker but not hurried)
11. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Var. 8
12. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Var. 9 (With easy movement)
13. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Var 10
14. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Var. 11 (Slow. With Solemnity)
15. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Var. 12 (Maestoso)
16. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: III. Transition
17. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV. Var 13 (Gaily)
18. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV. Var. 14
19. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV. Var. 15
20. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV. Var 16
21. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV. Transition (Rather quicker)
22. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV.Var.17 (Rather Slower. Very Broadly)
23. Brigg Fair – An English Rhapsody: IV. Coda(Very Quietly)
24. In A Summer Garden
25. Rehearsing Appalachia
26. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Appalachia:Introduction (Molto moderato – Tranquillo – Poco piu)
27. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Theme (Andante)
28. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Variation 1
29. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 2 (Moderato)
30. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 3 (Piu vivo)
31. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 4 (Molto moderato)
32. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 5 (Con moto)
33. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 6 (Giocoso. Allegro moderato)
34. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 7 (Lento e molto tranquillo)
35. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 8 (Misterioso)
36. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 9 (Andante con grazia)
37. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 10 (Lento sostenuto e tranquillo)
38. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 11 (Allegro alla marcia)
39. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 12 (Marcia. MOlto lento maestoso)
40. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 13 (L’istesso tempo)
41. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Var. 14 (Misterioso lento)
42. Apalachia – Variations On An Old Slave Song With Final Chorus: Finale (Lento – Piu mosso)

Disc 2
01. On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring
02. Summer Night On The River
03. A Song Before Sunrise
04. Intermezzo And Serenade From ‘Hassan’: Intermezzo
05. Intermezzo And Serenade From ‘Hassan’: Serenade
06. La Calinda
07. Late Swallows
08. Fennimore And Gerda: Intermezzo from ‘Fennimore and Gerda’
09. The Walk To The Paradise Garden: The Walk To The Paradise Garden from A Village Romeo and Juliet
10. Irmelin Prelude
11. A Song Of Summer

During Beecham’s lifetime Sir John cheekily made a Delius sampler for Pye (1956), including the provocative IDYLL, also the FENNIMORE AND GERDA snippet anthologized here. He returned to Delius in EMI recordings made between 1965-70—all very neatly collected here—with both the LSO and his favored Manchester orchestra. His 1965-66 LSO sessions yielded the excellent treasury ENGLISH TONE PICTURES (aka ENGLISH TONE POEMS) with Delius taking center stage between Arnold Bax and John Ireland. That set is beautifully reissued as a “Great Recording of the Century,” expanded with later Hallé Delian lollipops from August 1968.

Barbirolli’s collected Delius is intriguing but not quite definitive (this is not a Delius starter set): his interpretations are colourfully Italianate, occasionally intense and always slow (the music nearly comes to a full, premature stop in the later Hallé takes on the longer works). The definitive (and brisker) Delius is heard in the celebrated Beecham, Collins, Hickox and Mackerras recordings—yet Sir John’s autumnal ruminations on Delius have their own, slowish, burnished-sunset glow. The LSO miniatures from ENGLISH TONE PICTURES abide here, and are generally superior to the longer works Barbirolli laid down with the Hallé in August 1968 and July 1970.

The 1968 sessions yielded a very dreamy, soporific IN A SUMMER GARDEN and a surprise bonus in the Fenby transcription LATE SWALLOWS. Barbirolli returned with his Hallé players to Kingsway Hall 15-17 July 1970, in failing health but ambitiously laying down BRIGG FAIR and the dauntingly long APPALACHIA, with baritone Alun Jenkins and the Ambrosian choristers. These are sluggish performances, their length barely cohesive through later judicious tape splicing and careful editing by the EMI techs. These were Barbirolli’s final studio sessions; he left us just 12 days later on July 29—and the very next day his Cleveland contemporary George Szell left us as well.

Five stars for the convenience and historicity of this compilation, four for the Hallé performances themselves. The five-star LSO miniatures come up very appealingly, those longer, later recordings with the Hallé rather less convincingly as alt-Delius supplements. Sir John’s generally expansive, leisurely tempi imply that this set should be played back in manageable segments, at separated sunsets or twilight times, and definitely not all at one Delius-marathon go.